Both sides have fixed a bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015 [AP]

China and India have agreed to step up coordination on various policies under the aegis of the BRICS bloc.

The announcement was made at the conclusion of the sixth China-India Financial Dialogue held in Beijing on Thursday, ahead of a crucial state visit to Beijing by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in October.

“Both countries agreed to intensify cooperation with other BRICS member countries towards tangible results on the initiatives on BRICS Development Bank and Contingency Reserve Arrangement in the next BRICS summit,” said an official joint statement after the meet.

China and India said they are committed to pushing forward reforms in the international financial institutions, particularly at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Both sides urge other countries to fulfil their commitment of implementing the 2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reform expeditiously and to complete the next general quota review by January 2014,” said the statement.

“The two sides held in-depth discussions on new challenges facing the global economy, macro-economic situations and policies in China and India, progress on structural reforms in both countries, cooperation under multilateral frameworks as well as bilateral financial cooperation,” added the statement.

Both sides have fixed a bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2015.

The two neighbours also announced that they will step up cooperation in infrastructure investment and financing.

“Financial regulators from both countries exchanged views on market access regulation policies for foreign banks, agreed to support banks to establish branches and subsidiaries in each other’s market, and advocated deeper cooperation between financial institutions from the two countries, especially in areas of infrastructure investment and financing,” said the statement.

The two fastest growing economies asserted the need for them to collaborate with emerging markets to avoid negative spillovers of monetary policies of developed countries.

“With growth picking up in advanced economies, there is a need for them to collaborate with Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) on the pace and timing of recalibration of their unconventional monetary policies and strengthen communication with the market to avoid negative spillovers,” read the statement.

China and India are also working to speed up the construction of an economic corridor linking China, Bangladesh, India and Myanmar (BCIM), said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New York this week.

China is keen on developing an ‘international highway’ that will connect both countries to China’s Yunnan province and end in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata through Bangladesh.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.